PSAC National Component President Daniel Kinsella (standing at left) and Peter Leibovitch of the United Steelworkers visit political prisoners. Sitting from left to right: union organizer Arnaldo Seminiano, labour educator Emmanuel Dioneda, peasant leader Rogelio Galit, jeepney drivers union leader Nestor San Jose, Bayan Muna party list Southern Tagalog chair Crispin Zapanta and labour lawyer Remegio Saladero.Over the past few years, Canadian unions have sent letters to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to protest the spate of gross human rights violations in the country. The series of political killings, illegal arrests, abductions, harassment and intimidation of leftist and labour activists have been directly linked to the Philippine armed and police forces under her administration by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston. The international protests seemed to have worked as the number of political killings in 2008 decreased considerably. However, political repression has taken a different form.
On November 13, the day the mission delegates took off for the Canadian Trade Union Mission to the Philippines, Emmanuel Dioneda, a labour educator and activist, was picked up by a military van on his way to the market. He was held in a police camp before being transferred to a provincial jail in Mindoro. The charge against him? Being involved with rebels in an ambush of police in Oriental Mindoro. Dioneda survived polio as a child and has had a disability since.
President Arroyo’s government has issued warrants of arrests for 72 Filipinos, more than 30 of whom have been identified as labour and peasant activists. Six were caught and are in prison on the island of Mindoro, awaiting their hearings, including Dioneda and labour lawyer Regemio Saladero, who was arrested at his home by military in civilian clothing on October 23. Three of the mission delegates visited the provincial jail on November 17, arriving by ferry boat.
The prison’s visiting area was an unpaved square the size of half a football field surrounded by squat prison buildings. A chain-link gate crowned with barbed wires was the only exit to the outside world. The prisoners and their visitors roamed around the square or sat at tables and benches in one corner of the area. The delegates and their hosts were in another corner with the six political prisoners. Attorney Saladero, the first of the six to be arrested, sat beside his wife who brought him his insulin shots. Rogelio Galit, a peasant leader, also has diabetes and had been bed-ridden on the day of his arrest. There are no medical staff in the prison.
As each prisoner recounted their arrests, a pattern became obvious. The police and military nabbed them from the streets or from their homes, didn’t read them their rights and didn’t inform them of the charges upon arrest. Also, the prosecutor didn’t undertake preliminary investigation, which would have allowed the suspects to provide counter evidence to investigators. According to Saladero, under Philippine law, no case can be filed in court without a preliminary investigation.
“If the judges of our cases follow due process, the charges would be dismissed,” Saladero said.
All six said they were being treated relatively well in prison, but hope to get out soon. The mission delegates said they will do what they can in Canada to help make sure that they do.
On November 13, the day the mission delegates took off for the Canadian Trade Union Mission to the Philippines, Emmanuel Dioneda, a labour educator and activist, was picked up by a military van on his way to the market. He was held in a police camp before being transferred to a provincial jail in Mindoro. The charge against him? Being involved with rebels in an ambush of police in Oriental Mindoro. Dioneda survived polio as a child and has had a disability since.
President Arroyo’s government has issued warrants of arrests for 72 Filipinos, more than 30 of whom have been identified as labour and peasant activists. Six were caught and are in prison on the island of Mindoro, awaiting their hearings, including Dioneda and labour lawyer Regemio Saladero, who was arrested at his home by military in civilian clothing on October 23. Three of the mission delegates visited the provincial jail on November 17, arriving by ferry boat.
The prison’s visiting area was an unpaved square the size of half a football field surrounded by squat prison buildings. A chain-link gate crowned with barbed wires was the only exit to the outside world. The prisoners and their visitors roamed around the square or sat at tables and benches in one corner of the area. The delegates and their hosts were in another corner with the six political prisoners. Attorney Saladero, the first of the six to be arrested, sat beside his wife who brought him his insulin shots. Rogelio Galit, a peasant leader, also has diabetes and had been bed-ridden on the day of his arrest. There are no medical staff in the prison.
As each prisoner recounted their arrests, a pattern became obvious. The police and military nabbed them from the streets or from their homes, didn’t read them their rights and didn’t inform them of the charges upon arrest. Also, the prosecutor didn’t undertake preliminary investigation, which would have allowed the suspects to provide counter evidence to investigators. According to Saladero, under Philippine law, no case can be filed in court without a preliminary investigation.
“If the judges of our cases follow due process, the charges would be dismissed,” Saladero said.
All six said they were being treated relatively well in prison, but hope to get out soon. The mission delegates said they will do what they can in Canada to help make sure that they do.
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